I start by saying that this is an historical analysis and, for this reason, it tries to remain true to the facts. I start by saying that, probably, the only person that really knows the history of the Original Pure Breed Bulldog is the great Mr. Les Thorpe and that, probably, mine are just assumptions. Among the factors that could have caused its extinction, in my opinion, we can recognize the persecution sparked off towards it (the bulldog) during the 19th Century, the market requests for Hypertypic Bulldogs, the necessity to obtain an higher number of pups even if not 100% pure.
Unfortunately, in this case also, the information that we can get about the British Bulldog are quite contradictory. I, strongly, do not believe that opinion movements, certainly limited, regarding the Bulldog excessive aggressiveness (its tendency to strike at the face, to attack other dogs and its notorious ability to catch and kill cats, also the ones of the neighbors), or its ancient Asiatic origins ( nationalist troubles at the end of the '800), can justify its extinction also because the Classic Bulldog of the 20th century tries, with no success, to strike at the face, it tries , with no success, to catch the cat, and usually the male is cantankerous with another male.
Moreover, looking at the oldpaintings, the Bulldogs does not look like an uncontrollable or too aggressive dog, for example when is not painted with man. In fact, in many fights paintings, we can notice that the man, with his excitement, is the real main character of the painting and of the fight. Therefore it was necessary to bring the bulldog to such a state of exasperated excitement to force it to fight. Consequently, the Bulldog must not have been a bad dog, insensitive or uncontrollable, on the contrary... but it was probably easily excitable and, even more, it must have been very sensitive towards its owner excitement. Therefore I would not say that there has been a real effort of the exceptional English breeders that usually, rapidly and scientifically, achieve their goals. On the contrary the Bulldog was classified as a fighting breed until few years ago. Making a very personal hypothesis we can definitely say that in 1835 dog fighting's became illegal and that the breed evolution towards a more performing dog suddenly stopped. We know that Philo Kuon, being worried for this rapid involution, also numeric, has tried to fix the characteristics of the Original Pure Breed Bulldog using two famous painting dated before 1835.
We also know that, on the contrary, the bulldog was a legendary dog and that he was requested all over the world for its working and fighting ability to such an extend that to create new breeds and to guarantee a good result it was always used the best bulldog blood ( like for the Boxer).At this point comes more likely trying to understand the reasons that, in a market situation with many exports, brought to remain with only few valuable reproducers ( those never had to pass the demanding test of the fight where the performance ability was really measured; in the same respect the medicines brought in by Philo Kuon , the breed standard, the dog shows, the judges verdicts, too mutable, inadequate or, even unfeasible, turn out to be something that cuts both ways ) and, even more, to have too few females looking like Rosa. In such a critical situation, in my opinion, there might have been the need to use brood females not so pure, or Pug dogs, Dogue de Bordeaux or Mastiffs with the aim, not to transform the ancient fighter ( considered the best dog in the world) but to modify it as little as possible being able to produce a sufficient number of puppies. For this tendency of the English breeders, even over a 200 years period, the Classic Bulldog is not so different from the Original Bulldog.
To summarize: this hypothesis identifies in the reproducers market and in the dog shows the main reasons of the Original Pure Breed Bulldog seeming desappearance. The hypothesis about the reason and the manners could be endless but the only fact historically verifiable is that, after 700 years of fightings, barbaric invasions, wars, famines, dedeseases, 20 years of dog shows (with no wars or deseases) have been enought to cause its extinction. May be in London somebody was trying to underline the power of the Capital on the rest of the Empire or they had simply realized that the Bulldog could have been a good business but, having already sold the top reproducers and the brood females like Rosa, they did not want to give up the easy profit. For this reason they rapidly introduced the "London Bulldog", a gorgious looking dog but a "substitute" bulldog with an uncertain future, result of an extempore selection and definitely not enought tested ( and why give credit to a dog not tested enough when you can have the most tested dog in the world?) and with a similar character, and all this despite of the country breeders and of the dog-lovers, exploiting the dog shows and the breed standards.
In theory, to be able to defeat it at the shows without raising suspictions the "London Bulldog" should have been the most similar to the Original Bulldog and then the standard should have been slightly modified but the two dogs were becoming more and more different. It is not a case that, untill a few years ago, the "London Bulldog" was boasted to be the only dog with the same spirit and bravery of the Original Bulldog.
The dog shows enforced the victory of the London Bulldog and concluded the Story of the Best Dog of the World for whom they have been created, together with the Breed Standard ( Dog exhibitions without the application of breed standards or Point Systems occurred, like the one of Newcastle on Tyne in 1859) and so the Original Bulldog, shamed and defeated, retreated to Lincolnshire ( a flat and well ventilated region) where the tradition could guarantee its survival and where its history began in the 13th Century, far from London, from the busines and from Dog Shows.
